Proverbs 22:6

Senior Member

I've read this verse several times lately and contemplated how relationships between parents and adult children vary in today's world. This commentary is from the Jeremiah Study Bible, and it speaks well to encourage good parents. Sometimes, adult children just have to find things out the hard way for themselves and endure consequences from their own poor decisions when they purposely chose dishonesty, disrespect, and dishonor toward their parents who otherwise "raised them right".

Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

“Tough Questions : Does this verse guarantee that good parenting will produce great children?”

“No. Godly parents can have children who go astray. Conversely, the children of terrible parents can overcome their upbringing and turn out great.
Some parents, interpreting this verse as a promise, have tried to very carefully “train up [their children] in the way [they] should go,” only to see those children stray from that godly training. A proverb is not a promise. It is a literary device that highlights a general truth. Many of the proverbs in this book are not absolute guarantees because the truths they express must be conditioned by prevailing circumstances. Proverbs are generally and usually true, but occasional exceptions may be noted. When children from a Christian home go astray, their parents often carry a load of guilt and self-recrimination: What should I have done differently? Where could I have done better? But each person is responsible before God for his or her actions – our adult children included.”

Senior Member

I see this as it says. If you teach your child good morals, introduce them to the Lord they will not depart from that. To me it starts by looking in the mirror at ones self. Are you as a parent living your life as the bible tells. Example, do you put God first in all that you do? One can only train up a child as good as they are themselves. You cannot train a child to be an expert mechanic if you only know how to change your tires and thats it. Will they stray, of course no matter how well they are trained. This flesh is weak, if we do not seek God in everything day to day we leave gaps that this world of sin will quickly fill in. Again this verse makes me want to do a self examination. We have a young lady that goes to church with us on Wed and Sunday night. Her daddy is a pastor of another church and that church decided not to have services on those two times. Her daddy was raised just like a lot of folks to be there when the doors are opened. She was raised that way and is why she attends ours on those 2 services. Look back at the saints of old and how churches were full years ago. Flesh got in the way somewhere, training was lost at that generation. Gradually through the years that has led to fewer and fewer folks going to church and IMO how this nation has gotten in the shape it is in today. Done rambling now ;-)

Senior Member

I see this as it says. If you teach your child good morals, introduce them to the Lord they will not depart from that. To me it starts by looking in the mirror at ones self. Are you as a parent living your life as the bible tells. Example, do you put God first in all that you do? One can only train up a child as good as they are themselves. You cannot train a child to be an expert mechanic if you only know how to change your tires and thats it. Will they stray, of course no matter how well they are trained. This flesh is weak, if we do not seek God in everything day to day we leave gaps that this world of sin will quickly fill in. Again this verse makes me want to do a self examination. We have a young lady that goes to church with us on Wed and Sunday night. Her daddy is a pastor of another church and that church decided not to have services on those two times. Her daddy was raised just like a lot of folks to be there when the doors are opened. She was raised that way and is why she attends ours on those 2 services. Look back at the saints of old and how churches were full years ago. Flesh got in the way somewhere, training was lost at that generation. Gradually through the years that has led to fewer and fewer folks going to church and IMO how this nation has gotten in the shape it is in today. Done rambling now ;-)

So many things "come up", no?
Did I/we "do it right?" Did I do it...wrong?
Are they (the wandering child) defective...one beyond redemption, a dyed in the wool...rebel??
Do I trust this as a promise or is it just an aphorism used as filler?
Do I look "around" for examples of confirmation and let my faith be either bolstered or diminished by what I see?

It doesn't take much...if these at all be questions asked/vexing/troubling any believing parent NOW, if they are answered, how they are answered, if they even should be answered...has the greatest of repercussions, no? And repercussions...NOW! (And of what matter...or matters is not touched in all things...even by this/these...questions?)

In what...before God...right NOW, do I put my hope or trust in? Is any "what I have done...right?" (insert laughter)

Or what...(not "if") I have been wrong in...I do not yet find refutes the truth that when I am even faithless, He abides faithful?

Can I ever "know"...who might be beyond the Lord's reach? (I think the "can of worms" we open in even considering that is obvious)

And what of promise? Who decides what is promise...what is..."something else?"
(This is perhaps most telling) Do I run to others and ask "is this a promise of God?"...or just a general kind of "wisdom"?

And of course the last, am I moved...one way...or the other...by what I see of confirmation or seeming lack thereof? (To what matter, truly...in all things...does this not apply?)

(A man may love his doctrines...a man may love his "position" to tell...a man may adore his own explanations of "why"...but no man really knows till the rubber meets the road...whether he himself is truly a "cessationist", and what grief he unknowingly invites, what hopelessness he embraces...and may even disperse...like a stinking loo...till he discovers his greatest need is for something he has never seen before)

My testimony...I have. There is one greater than "my own" condemning heart. May God help me to say this as precisely as it is known. I cannot say this of anything I have done...ever..."right". It does not come of any standing I may hope before Him of appeal, no plea from seeming pressing or most present necessity. The desperation of any need (even though I have seen mercy to the desperate) is not the place of resort...for a man can "teach himself" to seek with tears.
This is all, and alone...the place of NO MANUFACTURE.

A man tailors many things to outcome. And although it is absolutely true a man may be given sight, and even...promise...he will only hold, can only hold, that by which (between he and God...ALONE) is shown real. Only there...can he ever know (not by "the Bible"...not by what men tell him, not by the general consensus, surely not a thing called "christianity", "his" denominational inclinations or lack thereof, and not by anything his eyes have previously seen or not seen) whether he has come to the God of all mercy.
For here...alone...he will find whether he finds Who is greater than his own heart. For..."his own" heart will always resort to manufacture. That place of "his own" where he may think...he has reason to stand.

Here all things "get real" beyond metaphor. Here...reasonings give way...to reason. Buckle, collapse and are made a display of such poverty to all that is only fit for shaming. And here I know...I only speak of what you already know.

Here...there is no hope at all...unless it is given.

Last edited: Aug 8, 2018

"When you fall outta love with your idolized self image as a servant of God, you may see the servant of God." he said.
"But Padre how will I know?" he pleaded.
"Simple, you'll meet the one who frees you from the greatest tyranny you have ever known; having to think well of yourself."